IBM South Africa and Industrial and Financial Systems (IFS) SA, the South African subsidiary of the world`s fastest growing enterprise application vendor, have agreed to work together to address specific vertical markets identified by the two companies.
Initially, their joint efforts will be focused on the engineering sector, with initial sales expected to roll out over the coming months to coincide with the IBM DB2 optimisation of the IFS 2001 suite of component-based enterprise solutions.
"As IFS continues to make major inroads into global enterprise markets, the company is increasingly being asked to implement our solutions in the large corporate sector where IBM hardware and database technologies are dominant. So, it made sense for the two companies to establish a closer working relationship," says Paul Whalley, general manager, IFS SA.
"This agreement will enable us to meet the stringent IT needs of this corporate sector more quickly and ensure that not only are the services delivered at the highest professional level, but also that an optimised software, hardware and database fit is implemented."
The SA joint agreement follows the signing of a global strategic alliance between the two companies last year when it was decided to add DB2 support to IFS Applications and embed a subset of the Websphere Family components into the solution.
The two companies agreed to collaborate to extend IFS Applications reach into traditional IBM accounts by working together to define, build and execute joint marketing activities to generate sales of IFS Applications licenses.
"It was a move which will benefit our joint customers considerably as well as our respective businesses," Gavin Tiedemann, Global Midmarket Business, IBM SA.
"IFS prospects now have a wider choice of platforms on which to base their future environments, while existing IBM customers wanting to move to a more flexible, component-based enterprise system optimised for new economy business processes can now do so within the IT infrastructure that they are used to."
IFS has developed a range of vertical solutions ranging from Telecomms and Utilities to Forestry and Automotive. These, through the inherent flexibility of the component-based technology can be easily integrated with legacy systems and best-of-breed solutions.
"We address multiple vertical markets globally, but have decided initially in SA to address the engineering sector with IBM. This is where we see a very specific need for a joint IBM/IFS solution," Whalley concludes.
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